Von Sehnsucht verzehrt

Good TV movie about a mousy young woman who takes her love for her favourite soap opera star one step too far. It has all the usual clichés, but it's boosted by the energetic, and psychotic, performance of Yvette Mimieux. I just loved her in this movie.

My rating: 7/10

Secretive travel agent Linda (Mimieux) likes to retreat into her own little world of fantasy involving her favourite soap opera character Michael/soap actor Glenn Stevens (MacCorkindale) on her favourite show Savage Hills, and the imaginary relationship she has with him. This is the type of fantasy that can actually be fulfilling for some people but becomes harmful when they cease to discern reality.

Linda has opportunities to interact with others but prefers her fantasy world. Reality is less compelling and she has already invested a lot of time and emotion gushing over an imaginary character she has become fixated on.

After the nightmare of being set up with a creep by a co-worker and arguing with her domineering mother Linda finally decides that she and reality have irreconcilable differences. She cashes out with her savings and hits Hollywood to claim her man, or at very least the actor, who plays him though she can't tell the difference.

She has enough money to meet him in style and splurges on a makeover and new wardrobe. The makeover agrees with her (if ya like 1980s fashions and spray job helmet hairdos) and she begins to stalk him in the most elegant manner possible. It is very disconcerting for everyone very much including Glenn's wife and son.

One has less sympathy for the Glenn character because he is just so incredibly irritating in the way only a very serious actor can be when they are being asked to portray the screen equivalent of a pulp paperback romance novel character and try to inject the method or some aspects of their classical training into their performances.

Glenn, feeling the stress (Cry me a river, Chump!) of a deteriorating marriage, soap stardom, a role that won't allow for any improvisation and demands a heavy time commitment of rehearsal, tapings and personal appearances, lets his guard down with Linda due to her strangely effective speed-seduction technique enhanced by sneaky tactics.

She is presentable which is often enough. Beyond that she is playfully aggressive. Most importantly her timing is utterly perfect. She catches him when he is vulnerable to the charms of a woman he doesn't know and who doesn't know him.

One of the advantages of being physically attractive and presentable lies in being mistaken for a rational person allowing one to hide in plain sight. For whatever reason people interpret a neat physical appearance with lucid thought.

Soap operas were big at one time. So big that every network had several of them both night and day. Now are there are but a few left on network TV. But when they were big they were huge. They got even bigger when VCRs came out and people could tape every episode never missing a minute. The character we see here appears to watch nothing but the same show over and over.

This TV movie was made at the time soaps were near their peak. It was also made at a time when those "Based on a true story"/Social disease of the week TV movies began to dominate made-for-TV flicks over the scripted fictional story ones like this one. But this fictional teleplay does employ the social disease aspect present quite often in TV movies a little bit.

Aside from that you get to see a neat thriller with a more mature kind of ending.

Yvette Mimieux was not one of those actresses who spent time complaining about the lack of juicy roles in Hollywood for women. She proactively worked behind the scenes in productions to make films with the kinds of roles for herself that she wanted to play. This production was based on story idea she came up with.

If you can buy petite, beautiful Yvette Mimieux as a loser, this is the film for you. It's also a fun watch if you're a fan of makeovers and soap operas.

The story concerns a whack job, Mimieux, who is obsessed with a soap star, portrayed by Simon McCorkindale. In fact, she lives her life as if they're together. By this I mean, she talks to him even though he's not there. You get the idea. Finally, she leaves her dreary job and existence and sets out to make her fantasy a reality.

In true TV movie style, she has herself completely made over, even dumping her glasses, and insinuates herself into his life by posing as a reporter. The fun starts there. A good watch.